Graham Elliot Bio

Chef Graham Elliot is a creative culinary wizard with an innate ability to successfully juxtapose four-star cuisine with humor, wit and out-of-the-box artistry. As a current co-host and judge on Fox Network’s hit cooking competitions, MasterChef and MasterChef Jr., Elliot offers his expert advice to show contestants. Combining his passion for food with a love of music, Elliot will return to Lollapalooza in 2015 as the culinary director, an honor he’s held for the past 7 years.

Along with regular TV appearances on Good Morning America, Access Hollywood, The Today Show and Nightline, Elliot runs the eponymously named, Graham Elliot Bistro in his hometown of Chicago. Elliot sees the restaurant as an extension of his passionate personality, embodying his core belief that cooking is an artistic, creative outlet. The spot opened its doors in 2008, immediately hypnotizing the city, garnering Michelin stars in both 2011 and 2012 and a visit from President Obama.

In recent years Elliot, who is a self-proclaimed "Navy brat" who has traveled the world and all fifty US states, has accrued many prestigious accolades including multiple James Beard Foundation Nominations, a spot on Food & Wine Magazine’s “Best New Chefs” in 2004. At the age of 27 he was the youngest Four Star Chef to be named in any city, also earning himself a spot on Crain’s Chicago Business list of "40 Under Forty", putting him in an elite club that includes luminaries such as Oprah Winfrey.